A philosopher dedicated to clear exposition

In 1984, my marriage to Cindy was in serious trouble. I had started once a week therapy with a McLean Hospital based psychiatrist named Lenore Boling, and I used the sessions really just to give voice to my unhappiness with what my relationship with Cindy had become. Despite the unhappiness, I do not think I ever shed a tear in those sessions over the shambles of the marriage. One day, however, I started talking about my work. I tried to explain to Dr. Boling that in all of my writing, whether it was on Kant's First Critique or Hume's Treatise or Das Kapital, my goal always was to plumb the depths of the author's central idea and recast it in a form so simple, so clear, so transparent that I could hold it before my students or my readers and show them its beauty. As I said these words, tears started to well up in me, and I finally had to stop talking because I could not finish. It was the only time in twenty years of psychotherapy that I cried openly in a session. Ever since that day, twenty-five years ago, I have understood that it is this intellectual intuition of the transparent beauty of an idea, not the desire for status or recognition or money, that has throughout my life been the driving force behind my writing and teaching. This is why it makes little difference to me whether reviewers agree with what I say, and it is why I am made somewhat uncomfortable by praise. The intrinsic beauty of the idea is the focus of my concern. It seems that I am, after all, more capable of shedding tears for the central argument of the Deduction of the Pure Concepts of Understanding than I am for a failed marriage or even for a deceased parent. I am not at all sure that is admirable, but it is closer to the truth about myself than I have ever come before.
That's from Robert Paul Wolff, hat tip goes to The Browser.

Related

There’s something that’s really profoundly odd about David Brook’s Benthan versus Hume column starting with the fact that the contrast he’s drawing seems to have nothing to do with the actual views of the philosophers in question. But anyway, here’s the contrast:

London (AFP) - Classified documents made public Tuesday shed light on the political courtship between Britain's Margaret Thatcher and Mikhail Gorbachev -- whom she famously declared she could "do business" with.

Pope Francis, cardinals and bishops from around the world have gotten an unexpected lecture on the joys of sex, from a Catholic couple brought in to talk about what makes a marriage last.
Ron and Mavis Pirola, parents of four from Sydney, Australia, told a Vatican gathering of some 200 prelates that sexual attraction brought them together 57 years ago and that sex has helped keep them married for 55 years.

PRETORIA, South Africa — A panel of mental health experts has concluded that Oscar Pistorius was not suffering from a mental illness when he killed girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp in his home last year, the chief prosecutor at the athlete’s murder trial said Monday.
Pistorius’ trial resumed after a break of one month during which a psychologist and three psychiatrists also assessed whether the double-amputee runner was capable of understanding the wrongfulness of his act when he shot Steenkamp through a closed toilet door.

Designers rely on intuition when developing and detailing concepts but must still keep the business opportunity in mind, looking for ways of creating value. The better understanding they have of business concepts and of their assumptions, the better their intuition is for making tradeoffs and securing business success. Including designers in developing the business opportunity not only helps them see the complete picture, it also makes them less prone to be tricked by their intuition. ...

Twenty years ago today Sgt. Pepper wasn't teaching the band how to play. Back in January 1993, I was on the job market giving talks at Cornell and Duke. On February 6th 1993, I gave my Columbia talk and quickly accepted their offer and cancelled my other talks. I share these details because I'm amazed that 20 years have passed. Unlike 20 years ago, this isn't a stressful January.